Water treating compound



Patented Dec. 12, 1933 UNITED STATES 1,938,677 WATER TREATING COMPOUNDJulius Alsberg, Putnam Valley, N. Y., assignor to I The Super-heaterCompany, New York, N. Y.

No Drawing.

Application April 29, 1931 Serial No. 533,787

2 Claims, (Cl. 210-23) provide a practical and convenient solid form' ofsuch tannin compound and a method or process formaking it. Tannin as awater compound may be used either in solid state or in solution. Thelatter is often very inconvenient. On the other hand, when the moisturefrom the liquid tannin extract is evaporated, the remaining solid is ina more or less pulverized state and in this form is likewise not veryconvenient for use especially when intended for use on locomotives. Itis therefore desirable to put it into the form of briquettes or similarlarger solids so that it can be more readily stored and handled.Attempts at briquetting the solid extract have heretofore provenunsuccessful, or at least unsatisfactory, but by my present invention Ihave provided a thoroughly satisfactory form of such briquettes and amethod of making them. It is true that briquettes-can be made by merelypressing the dry or slightly moistened compound into the desired form.The resulting briquettes, however, are very fragile and not 'adapted forthe intended use. The same applies to briquettes made with the use of anumber of binders which have been tried. The resulting product has notbeen strong enough to stand the handling it is subjected to.

A further and serious objection to these bri-- quettes which appearedwhen they were used,

is that they dissolve entirely too fast when put to the desired use.This use consists in the case of locomotives in putting them into thetender of the locomotive. The briquette should be large enough to lastover an appreciable period of time, for instance, for around'trip ofseveral hundred miles. If this is not the case, the personnel of thelocomotive is put to considerable trouble in connection with watchingthat the required amount of the material is added as required. If thebriquettes could be made to dissolve somewhat slowly, it could be madeof such size as to last through a period such as indicated. This it notthe case with briquettes as hitherto prepared. They dissolved too fastand the entire amount of the treating material went into the feed waterheater and locomotive boiler in too short a time. By my invention thedissolving is sufficiently delayed so that the material lasts over aconsiderable period.

In preparing my material, I make sure that the tannin itself is in afinely divided form and then I further grind up into a fine powder aquantity of dry glue. These two ingredients I next mix in suchproportion that about 10% of the mixture is glue. The exact proportionmay be varied from this figure, although I have found that thisproportion is the most satisfactory.

After the two have been thoroughly mixed, I moisten the mixture withwater or an aqueous glue solution. This is preferably done by atomizingthe water or solution on the mixture which is kept in constant agitationto prevent an excess of moisture at any one point. When a glue solutionis used, its exact strength may be considerably varied.

Preferably I moisten the mixture only sufficiently so that it canreadily be formed into 00- herent briquettes. I find that from three tofive percent moisture is about right. The briquettes are formed of themoistened mass preferably under pressure, and may be given any desiredform or size. They will not deteriorate with age, will stand very roughusage without breaking and can be stored under a wide range ofconditions.

When such a briquette is put into water, for instance, in the tender ofa locomotive, it will not dissolve anywhere nearly as rapidly as willbriquettes without binder or with the ordinary binder. The probableexplanation of the slowmoisture a tannate of glue is formed which isindissoluble in water. This tannate of glue extends through every partof the briquette and in effect forms a sort of a frame-work or porousWhenv the briquette is immersed in water and the tannin begins todissolve, the outer portions of the briquette will first be emptied oftheir tannin content and will be washed off from the briquettes by thecurrents of water, exposing further parts of the briquette to theeroding action of the water currents. The indissoluble particles oftannate of glue will be carried off by the water and will either collectwith the sludge in the bottom of the tank to be drained off-from time totime or reach the feed water heater and boiler with the water where theywill do no harm as they are inert and only small in amount. 7

Whether the theory set forth above concerning the slowness of thedissolving is correct or not, it is a fact that my improved briquettedissolves much more slowly than briquettes of tannin as made heretoforeandfor reasons clear so I ing up of the dissolving is that in thepresence of skeleton with interstices holding the tannin.

to slow up the dissolution of the briquetfe in water, these meansincluding a relatively nonaoluble material composed of glue and tanninso distributed through the briquette that as the tannin-bearing extractdissolves, a protective coetin: 0d the non-soluble material is lett onthe surface of the mm.

JULIUS ALBIBIRG.

